Spotlight

Vikings Star Katheryn Winnick: Why the Male-Heavy Set Reminds Her of Her Tae-Kwon-Do Days

Katheryn Winnick, photographed in Los Angeles, in a dress by Roland Mouret.

Photograph by Ben Hassett. Styled by Ryan Hastings; hair products by Oribe; makeup products by Dior; hair by Kristen Shaw; makeup by Shane Paish; manicure by Nettie Davis; produced on location by Kadota.

Star of the History Channel series Vikings, Katheryn Winnick is making a rare kind of transition in Hollywood: from tae-kwon-do instructor to actress. She talked to Krista Smith about her decision to start acting, her experience on the male-heavy set of Vikings, and how to learn how to talk like a Viking, when nobody actually knows how they talked.

VF Hollywood:Vikings is huge! People love it! It had what—like, 6 million viewers or something?

Katheryn Winnick: I know—it’s crazy! We just got picked up for a second season, and it’s getting an amazing response. They say it’s number one for that time slot, so we’re getting great viewers. People are taking to it.

What was special about Vikings that made you decide to audition for it?

It’s just so well written, and it’s hard to find strongly written female roles like this. And they told me there weren’t any casting sessions, that the creator [was] overseas in England, and I would have to put myself on tape. So I ended up finding a dialect coach to work with me, because they wanted the Old Norse way of speaking and a Viking accent, and no one really knew what they sounded like.

What is a Viking accent?

I know right? It’s so crazy. We ended up working with a dialect coach to come up with a Bible of sounds of speaking. No one really knew how the Vikings spoke, but Michael Hirst had an old, traditional way of speaking, but then we worked a bit of Scandinavian in, we have a bit of Swedish undertone. We created different sounds to try to make—it’s such an international cast, to have everybody unified, and to sound similar. There was a bit of freedom, the fact that there were so many Viking villages that people could’ve had different accents just like you would in the States, with New York and Boston and L.A. and California accents. But I ended up putting myself on tape in my living room, and a few months later, I was shooting in Canada, and I got a call saying they want me to go in again but they need me to look more worn out, more like a real Viking, with the makeup and more raw. I ended up going to a costume store, and I rented what I thought was a Viking outfit, knowing nothing about Vikings. I went in for another read in Canada, while I was there with the casting director. And then they flew me to L.A. to screen-test opposite Travis [Fimmel]. And I did the screen test at MGM, and three days later, I was off to Ireland.

How many episodes have you guys shot?

We’re doing 10 for this year. But the first season, we did nine. It was amazing. We shot in Ireland. It’s absolutely beautiful there, and it’s such a perfect location to shoot something like this, because we’re in the Dark Ages and Ireland is so remote and there’s nothing really there other than your friends, and you have to get to know everybody a lot quicker. But it was great. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was one of my favorite projects, if not my favorite project to date, for sure.

And your martial-arts training was always the one thing that was so special about you and different, that separated you from everybody.

I’ve been looking for a role that I can really sink my teeth into and use the physical side of my history on, and this was perfect. My character is based on a real shield maiden—her name was Lagertha—who was married to Ragnar Lothbrok. So we are real people, and a shield maiden is a female warrior in the Viking era, in the Dark Ages. So I actually get a chance to use the physical side that I love.

It’s a great part for an actress to play. And also I love the fact that among the Vikings, the women fought along with the men.

They did. They actually did. They were part of the shield wall and in the battlefield. It’s so amazing to see how women were celebrated and how empowered they were in the Dark Ages in the eighth century. It was interesting to see the history takes a few steps backward later, in terms of women and their power in society.

How’d you get into tae kwon do?

I was heavily into gymnastics at a young age, and my parents decided we’re all going to do it as a family activity. I started at the age of seven and got my first black belt at 13 and started my own martial-arts school at 16. And I had three schools by the time I was 21, and I started teaching actors and actresses martial arts on movie sets. I wanted to expand my business in more of a health-and-fitness industry, and more of a health-fitness business. So I thought I was going to be in that field. But acting took precedence, and I took acting as a way to try to understand who I am. Martial arts was a hard upbringing in a sense, where women weren’t allowed to show any emotion, especially since I trained four hours a day. So I saw acting as an opportunity to get to know myself, more as therapy, and then it worked out to be in front of the camera and to have a career in it.

Are your schools still open?

No, I had to close them down. But I definitely love teaching self-defense, and I want to bring that back and teach women to defend themselves. That’s something I’m going to do. I’m going to go back this year and do that on the Vikings set and do a seminar for female self-defense and empowerment, more of, like, a crash course.

How was it at 16 that you had the entrepreneurial spirit to open a school?

I don’t know what it was with me, I just did it. I had a very strict master [who] was very strict, and he wasn’t very happy when my schools were more successful than his. But I thought I could do a better job than he did, and I did. And it was really interesting to see when we’d go to tournaments. All my students had the team jackets on, and people would be like, “Who’s running these schools?” And then I come out with my little blond ponytail.

Did you yourself ever want to compete in the Olympics or anything?

Well, I trained nationally. I’m ranked second in Canada, and I was supposed to go to Montreal to train for the Olympics. And at that time, I was working on my degree at university and had all these goals, and I got more satisfaction helping other people and teaching other students, so I decided to make that more of a priority. I don’t regret it. I never saw myself as this little girl. I saw myself as a very strong individual, and I could do anything. My parents raised me so that I could do anything. So I didn’t think twice about it.

What was the moment for you when you decided to transition into acting?

I’ve always been really embarrassed to call myself an actress. I’ve been waiting for a long time to build the acting credits to be able to then take a role with a physicality toward it, like a martial-arts active role. And it took me many years to actually accept that this is what I do for a living. And once I had that confidence, I started passing on roles and making stronger decisions

How is it with the very male-heavy cast?

I loved it. I was the only girl on set for the first three months, pretty much. So it reminded me of my old tae-kwon-do days of being in a dojo and being a tomboy growing up. But it was nice to have Jessalyn [Gilsig], who plays Siggy, there. I remember we did our first scene together, and we were just celebrating. We were like, “Yay!”